Week 1 — Kuhnian Revolutions

Thomas Kuhn — Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Core Idea

Scientific development is not a smooth accumulation of knowledge. It proceeds through periods of stability punctuated by revolutions that reorganize how scientists see the world.

Key Concepts

Paradigm

• A shared intellectual framework including theories, methods, assumptions, and standards of evidence.
• It defines what counts as a legitimate scientific question.

Normal Science

• Most scientific work.
• Scientists solve puzzles within the paradigm rather than questioning it.

Anomalies

• Observations that conflict with expectations of the paradigm.

Crisis

• When anomalies accumulate and confidence in the paradigm weakens.

Scientific Revolution

• A new paradigm replaces the old one.

Philosophical Significance

Theory-ladenness of observation Observations are not neutral. What scientists see depends partly on the theoretical framework they already accept.

Incommensurability Different paradigms may not be directly comparable because they use different concepts and standards.

Science as a historical practice Scientific knowledge evolves through communities, traditions, and intellectual commitments, not purely through logic.

Philosophical implication Kuhn challenges the traditional view that science steadily approaches truth through purely rational progress.

Graduate-level philosophy of science often asks:

• Is science moving toward truth or merely changing conceptual frameworks?
• Are paradigm shifts rational decisions or sociological events?